ABSTRACT
With the invention of the notion of solidarity, the Third Republic found a way to resolve the antinomies inherent in its political foundation on the equal sovereignty of all. Solidarity is the principle of government that makes it possible to convert the conflicting demands and fears generated by the proclamation of the Republic into a common faith in progress. At least, that is what is claimed by those who direct this new orientation in these closing years of the nineteenth century which are often represented as our Golden Age, when the Republic seems well on its way to a definitive triumph over its demons, wrenching itself free from the troubles of this closing century, and completing its self-realisation by creating the figure of the State as guarantor of society’s progress.
